Costs

In 2002, the Auditor-General of New South Wales reported that the
Sydney Games cost $AUD 6.6
billion, with a net cost to the public between $AUD 1.7 and 2.4
billion.

It has been estimated that the economic impact of the 2000 Olympics
was that $AUD 2.1 billion has been shaved from public consumption.
Economic growth was not stimulated to a net benefit and in the
years since 2000, foreign tourism to NSW grew by less than tourism
to Australia as a whole. A "multiplier" effect on broader economic
development is not realised as a simple "multiplier" analysis fails
to capture is that resources have to be redirected from elsewhere:
the building of a stadium is at the expense of other public works
such as extensions to hospitals. Building sporting venues does not
add to the aggregate stock of productive capital in the years
following the Games: "Equestrian centres, softball compounds and
man-made rapids are not particularly useful beyond their immediate
function."

Preliminary matches – from 13 September

Although the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony was not scheduled until
15 September, the football
competitions began with preliminary matches on 13 September.
Among the
pre-ceremony fixtures, host nation Australia lost 1–0 to Italy at
the Melbourne
Cricket Ground, which was the main stadium for the 1956 Melbourne
Olympics.

Day 1 - 15 September

Cultural display highlights

The opening ceremony began with a tribute to the Australian
pastoral heritage of the muster (or "roundup", in which
the stockmen gather together the livestock from the vast areas of an Australian outback sheep or cattle
station), symbolising the drawing together of people from
across the world. This was introduced by a lone rider, Steve Jefferys, and his rearing Australian Stock HorseAmmo.
At the cracking of Jefferys' stockwhip, a
further 120 riders entered the Stadium, their stock horses
performing intricate steps, including forming the five Olympic Rings, to a special Olympics version
of the theme which Bruce Rowland had
previously composed for the 1982 film The Man from Snowy
River.

The ceremony continued, showing many aspects of the land and its
people:- the affinity of the mainly coastal-dwelling Australians
with the sea that surrounds the "Island Continent". Kylie Minogue performed for the Closing
Ceremony singing Dancing Queen, the
song by ABBA and On A Night Like This. The
indigenous occupation of the
land, the coming of the First Fleet, the
continued immigration from many nations and the rural industry on
which the economy of the nation was built, including a display
representing the harshness of rural life based on the paintings of
Sir Sidney Nolan. Two memorable scenes
were the representation of the "Heart" of the country by 200
Aboriginal women from
Central Australia who danced up
"the mighty spirit of God to protect the Games" and the
overwhelmingly noisy representation of the construction industry by hundreds of
tap-dancing teenagers.

Because the wife of Juan Antonio
Samaranch, the IOC President, was seriously ill and not able to
accompany her husband to the Olympics, former Australian Olympic
Champion swimmer and member of the NSW state parliament, Dawn Fraser, accompanied Samaranch during the
Australian cultural display, explaining to him some of the more
obscure cultural references.

Formal presentation

A record 199 nations entered the stadium, with a record 80 of them
winning at least one medal. The only missing IOC member being Afghanistan (suspended due to the Taliban regime's prohibition against practicing any
kind of sports).The ceremony featured
a unified entrance by the athletes of North and South Korea, using a specially designed unification flag: a white background flag
with a blue map of the Korean
Peninsula. The two teams competed separately, however.
Four
athletes from East
Timor also marched in the parade of nations as Individual Olympic Athletes and
marched directly before the Host country. Although the
country-to-be had no National Olympic Committee then, they were
allowed to compete under the Olympic
Flag with country code IOA. The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, opened the games.

The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. Former Australian Olympic
champion Herb Elliott brought the
Olympic Flame into the stadium. Then, celebrating 100 years of
women's participation in the Olympic Games, former Australian women
Olympic champions: Betty Cuthbert and
Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland (later Shirley
Strickland de la Hunty), Shane Gould and
Debbie Flintoff-King brought
the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman, who lit the flame in the
cauldron within a circle of fire. The planned spectacular climax to
the ceremony was delayed by the technical glitch of a computer
switch which malfunctioned, causing the sequence to shut down by
giving a false reading. This meant that the Olympic flame was
suspended in mid-air for about four minutes, rather than
immediately rising up a water-covered ramp to the top of the
stadium. When the cause of the problem was discovered, the program
was overridden and the cauldron continued its course, and the
ceremony concluded with a spectacular fireworks display.

Some significant participants

The young girl singer, who featured in the early part of the
opening ceremony, was Nikki Webster.
Other musical performers were Olivia
Newton-John and John Farnham (who
sang the duet "Dare to Dream" while walking among the athletes),
Vanessa Amorosi (who sang "Heroes
Live Forever" while a huge cloth was lowered down to cover the
athletes - with sporting images and the image of a white dove of
peace then being displayed on the cloth) and Tina Arena (who sang "The Flame"). There was also
a massed Millennium Marching Band of 2000 musicians - with 1000
Australian musicians, the remaining 1000 musicians being from other
countries around the world. (the massed band was so large that six
conductors were required for the
segment).

The English-language announcer for the Opening Ceremony was
Australian actor John Stanton,
while the Channel 7 narrator for the Indigenous section of the
display was actor Ernie Dingo.

The first star of the Games was Ian
Thorpe. The 17-year-old Australian first set a new world record
in the 400 m freestyle final before competing in an exciting 4 x
100 m freestyle final. Swimming the last leg, Thorpe passed the
leading Americans and arrived in a new world record time, two
tenths of a second ahead of the Americans. In the same event for
women, the Americans also broke the world record, finishing ahead
of the Netherlands and Sweden.

Samaranch had to leave for home, as his wife was severely ill. Upon
arrival, his wife had already died. Samaranch returned to Sydney
four days later. The Olympic flag was flown at half-staff during
the period as a sign of respect to Samaranch's wife.

Day 3 - 17 September

CanadianSimon Whitfield
sprinted away in the last 100 metres of the men's triathlon,
becoming the inaugural winner in the event.

In the
swimming pool, American Tom Dolan beat the
world record in the 400 m medley,
successfully defending the title he won in Atlanta four years prior. Dutchwoman Inge de Bruijn also clocked a new world
record, beating her own time in the 100 m butterfly final to win by
more than a second.

Day 4 - 18 September

The main event for the Australians on the fourth day of the Games
was the 200 m freestyle. DutchmanPieter van den
Hoogenband had broken the world record in the semi-finals,
taking it from the new Australian hero Ian
Thorpe, who came close to the world record in his semi-final
heat. As the final race finished, Van den Hoogenband's time
was exactly the same as in the semi-finals, finishing ahead of
Thorpe by half a second.

China won the gold medal in the
men's team all-around gymnastics
competition, after being the runner-up in the previous two
Olympics.The other medals were taken by Ukraine and Russia,
respectively.

Zijlaard-van Moorsel lived up to the expectations set by her world
record in cycling in the semis by winning
the gold medal.

Day 7 - 21 September

Controversy erupted at the Women's Gymnastics All-Around final,
when gymnast after gymnast fell on the vault. Some gymnasts were
physically injured, and all were shaken, but nothing was done to
try and discover the reason most gymnasts were having severe
problems. Finally, in the middle of the second round, it was
determined that the vault horse had been set 5 cm too low - a
small amount, possibly, but to these world-class athletes, enough
of a difference to have thrown off their impeccable timing to the
extent that true performance was impossible. This situation led
directly to the elimination of Svetlana Khorkina from consideration
as the top all-around gymnast.

Day 9 - 23 September

By rowing
in the winning coxless four, Steve
Redgrave of Great
Britain became a member of a select group who had won gold
medals at five consecutive Olympics.

The swimming 4 x 100-metre medley relay of B.J. Bedford, Megan
Quann (Jendrick), Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres became the first
women's relay under 4-minutes, swimming 3:58 and setting a world
record, claiming the gold medal for the United States.

Day 13 - 27 September

The
Canadian flag at athletes' village is
lowered to half-staff as Canadian athletes pay tribute to former prime minister
Pierre Trudeau after hearing of his
passing in
Montreal (Because of the time difference, it was 29
September in Sydney when Trudeau died). The Canadian flag
flew at half-staff for the remainder of the Olympics, on orders
from both IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Canadian Foreign
Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, as
the state funeral didn't take place until 3 October.

Day 15 - 30 September

Cameroon won a
historic gold medal over Spain in the Men's Olympic
Football Final at the Olympic
Stadium. The game went to a penalty shootout.

Day 16 - 1 October

Olympic colours on the Sydney Harbour
Bridge.

The Closing Ceremony commenced with Christine Anu singing a
stirring rendition of her hit song, Island Home. She performed with
several Aboriginal dancers atop the Geodome Stage in the middle of
the stadium, around which several hundred umbrella and lampbox kids
created an image of Aboriginal dreamtime.

The Geodome Stage was used throughout the ceremony, which is a flat
stage which is mechanically raised into the shape of a Geode.

Subsequent Summer Olympics held in Athens and Beijing have been described by
Samaranch's successor, Jacques Rogge,
as "unforgettable, dream Games" and "truly exceptional"
respectively - the practice of declaring games the "best ever"
having been retired after the 2000 games.

Medal count

These are the top medal-collecting nations for the 2000 Games.
(Host country is highlighted)

1

36

24

31

91

2

32

28

28

88

3

28

16

15

59

4

16

25

17

58

5

13

17

26

56

6

13

14

11

38

7

13

8

13

34

8

12

9

4

25

9

11

11

7

29

10

11

10

7

28

Marion Jones, winner of three gold and
two bronze medals for the United States, relinquished them in
October 2007 after confessing that she had taken tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) from
September 2000 through July 2001. The IOC formally stripped Jones
and her relay teammates of their 5 medals, although her teammates
were to be offered opportunity to present a case for retaining
their medals. Jones was also banned from competing for two years by
the IAAF.

On 2 August 2008, the International Olympic Committee stripped the
gold medal from the U.S. men's 4x400-meter relay team, after
Antonio Pettigrew admitted using a
banned substance. Three of the four runners in the event final,
including Pettigrew and twins Alvin
and Calvin Harrison, and preliminary
round runner Jerome Young, all have
admitted or tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Only
Angelo Taylor, who also ran in
preliminary rounds, and world record holder Michael Johnson were not
implicated. The medal was the fifth gold medal for world record
holder Johnson, who stated he had already planned to return the
medal because he felt "cheated, betrayed and let down" by
Pettigrew's testimony. The gold medal position for this event is
now vacant.

Running up to the games an Australian comedy satire, The Games, was
broadcast in Australia (it was also broadcast, at a later date, in
New Zealand). The series, which starred satirists John Clarke and Bryan Dawe along with Australian comedianGina Riley and
actor Nicholas Bell, was written by
John Clarke and Ross Stevenson. It centred on the
Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), and
featured a spoof of the issues and events that the top-level
organisers and bureaucrats suffered in the lead up to the
games.

NBC
presented over 400+ hours on their main and sister stations,
CNBC and MSNBC. The downside
of the American coverage was that it was presented on tape delay
rather than live due to the 15-hour time difference. The lone
exception was the gold medal game in Men's Basketball, which
featured the U.S. defeating France 85-75. The game was televised
live in primetime on Saturday, 30 September (EDT), which was the
afternoon of Sunday, 1 October in Australia. In their 2004
coverage, NBC and its sister networks presented live coverage
throughout the morning and afternoon, while showing marquee events
pre-taped in prime time.

A poignant part of the media coverage happened in the Canadian
broadcast. On 28 September, the CBC was airing the Olympics, when
the network's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, broke in and said:

"Hello from Toronto, I'm Peter
Mansbridge.

Sad news to report from Montreal...Pierre Elliott Trudeau, prime
minister of Canada from 1968 to 1984 with one brief interruption in
1979, has passed away..."

The CBC's Olympic coverage for the bulk of that evening was
replaced by coverage of Trudeau's passing.
The CBC resumed Olympics coverage the next day, although the
network would occasionally break away for coverage of events in
honour of the late former prime minister.

Organization

SOCOG organisational structure circa
1998 - five groups and 33 divisions reporting to the CEO are
organised primarily along functional lines with only a limited
number of divisions (eg Interstate Football and Villages)
anticipating a venue focussed design.

dozens of official sponsor and hundreds of official supplier
companies

These bodies are often collectively referred to as the "Olympic
Family".

Organisation of the Paralympics

Organization of the 2000 Summer
Paralympics was the responsibility of SPOC
the Sydney Paralympic Organizing Committee. However much of the
planning and operation of the Paralympic Games was outsourced to
SOCOG such that most operational programmes planned both the
Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Other Olympic events

Organisation of the Olympic Games included not only the actual
sporting events but also the management (and sometimes
construction) of the sporting venues and surrounding precincts, the
organisation of the Sydney
Olympic Arts Festival and Olympic torch relay. The route the
relay took is shown here:

Phases of the Olympic project

The staging of the Olympics were treated as a project on a vast scale, with the project broken
into several broad phases:

1993 to 1996 – positioning

1997 – going operational

1998 – procurement/venuisation

1999 – testing/refinement

2000 - implementation

2001 - post implementation and wind-down

SOCOG organisational design

The internal organisation of SOCOG evolved over the phases of the
project and changed, sometimes radically, several times.

In late 1998 the design was principally functional. The
top two tiers below the CEO Sandy Hollway
consisted of five groups (managed by Group General
Managers and the Deputy CEO) and twenty divisions (managed
by divisional General Managers), which in turn were further broken
up into programmes and sub-programmes or projects.

In 1999 functional areas (FAs) broke up into geographic precinct
and venue teams (managed by Precinct Managers and Venue Managers)
with functional area staff reporting to both the FA manager and the
venue manager. Ie, SOCOG moved to a matrix structure. The Interstate Football
division extant in 1998 was the first of these geographically based
venue teams.

Volunteer program

The origins of the volunteer program for Sydney 2000 dates back to
the bid, as early as 1992.

On 17
December 1992, a group of Sydney citizens, interested in the
prospect of hosting the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, gathered
for a meeting at Sports House, at Wentworth Park in Sydney.

In the period leading up to 1999, after Sydney had won the bid, the
small group of volunteers grew from approximately 42 to around 500.
These volunteers became known as Pioneer Volunteers. The Pioneer
Volunteer program was managed internally by SOCOG's Volunteer
Services Department in consultation with prominent peak groups like
The
Centre for Volunteering and TAFE. Some of
the Pioneer Volunteers still meet every four months, an unseen
legacy of the games which brought together a community spirit not
seen before.

During the Olympic games tens of thousands of volunteers, the
official figure was placed at 46, 967, helped everywhere at the
Olympic venues and elsewhere in the city. They were honoured with a
parade like the athletes had a few days before.

The official logo

The bid
logo featured a stylized image of the Sydney Opera House, whilst the official logo featured the stylized
image of a runner in motion and was designed by leading Melbourne
graphic design firm, FHA Image Design.

The Bronze Medals

In 1992, these coins began to be removed
from circulation. People were urged to exchange them for coins
still in circulation.

Both the 1 cent coins and 2 cent coins were melted down and turned
into bronze medals for the 2000
Olympics.

Award

The International Olympic Committee awarded Sydney and its
inhabitants with the "Pierre de Coubertin Trophy" in recognition of
the collaboration and happiness shown by the people of Sydney
during the event to all the athletes and visitors around the
world.

NSWPF Olympic Commendation and Citation

The New South Wales
Police Force was granted use of the Olympic Rings in the New
South Wales Police Force Olympic Commendation and the New South
Wales Police Force Olympic Citation for having staged the "safest"
games ever.

Fictional references

Australian mockumentary series The Games was a
satirical look at the preparations for the event.

The novel, and original video game of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, featured the Sydney Olympics as a
terrorist target for a chemical/biological attack.

In Morris Gleitzman's 1999
novel, Toad Rage, Limpy and
Goliath - the main protagonists - visit Sydney during the course of
the 2000 Olympics, causing an uproar at the Opening Ceremony and
'helping' a young pole vaulter in campaigning public appreciation
for cane toads.